Cakes, showers, dresses, flowers, planners, favors, chairs, tables, invitations, and rings... What do all these things have in common? If you put the word "wedding" in front of them, it increases it's cost substantially. It's incredible to me how much wedding paraphernalia costs. Believe me, I know first hand. My wife and I planned a small get together on the beach for our wedding. My grandmother and I made the wedding cake, my uncle cooked for us, my little brother did the ceremony, the table cloths were plastic and we decorated with paper streamers and seashells from the beach,... oh!... but there was so much more and it still cost us thousands! It's just one of those things: wedding stuff has always been expensive and it's expected to be expensive, so... it is epensive. Although it's become customary to price gouge certain events, it doesn't mean EVERYONE has to do it. I charge based on supplies, shipping...
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I'm revisiting the Rook that I've been working on for a longer-term chess set project. I'd specifically like to share my thoughts on the creation of the head on this little fella... As you can see the head turned out much different than the image Eric provided. I decided to leave it at this stage without the spikes based on the following reasoning: Artistic liberties were reserved in advance. If I leave it unpainted I can add the spikes to it later. It'll be easier to mold without spikes. The face just seemed to evolve on it's own. Originally, I made a quick stand-in head to help position the rim of the turtle shell and get an overall feel for the size of it. I think it was in how I had cut the mouth that gave it the "je ne sais quois" that...
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Last week was my first week with this website up and running. This weekend I was so excited to be working on a new commission to post I just about finished it. I'm currently 15 hours into the piece. Amy, a friend of a friend contacted me specifically interested in the Dragon Lighter Case for her boyfriend for his birthday. That piece had already been sold and no molds were made so we discussed the possibility of a custom piece and the details she'd like to included: Tod (her boyfriend) has a tribal tattoo that's very meaningful. The cost for this piece was quoted at $250 and that price was adjusted for allowing me to making a mold for reproduction. As I prepared the initial process, Amy and I discussed different ways to combine the dragon with Tod's tattoo without making the dragon entirely abstract... As detailed in a previous post the initial pink layer...
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I recieved a lot of questions after the last post asking how to sculpt hair. I am in fact the son of a hairdresser, and like the old saying goes about the mechanics car always being broken - my car is broken. My experimentation with sculpting hair all began with this commissioned piece below. It's based on the main character from the video game Stranger's Wrath. Stranger, is one of many incredibly inventive creatures created by Oddworld Inhabitants. It seemed to take forever to make as I tried to perfect the look of the hair. I shall demonstrate my process on an unfinished piece. I'm going to give the lizard below long hair and mutton chops, so you can see that the same technique can be used for all different lengths of hair. I start off by guesstimating the general area where the thickest part of the hair...
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